I can't sleep
Everytime I remember your words
They snap and recoil
And hurt me awake
Next time when someone
Promises me forever
I'll just smile
Look them in the eyes and ask
How long is forever to you.

Remember that old uphill trail
We used to meander along
With matching footsteps
Under the sunlit canopy of leaves
Carving words for each other
On the bark of aged trees
Who may have known
what would become of us
But nevertheless smiled
acted as a blank canvas instead
And watched the moments
Filled with playful laughter
Peachy smiles
Lingering gaze
Warm caress
Unfold lazily between us
The winds of time
May have blown us miles apart
Our footprints may have long eroded
That sunlit canopy may have withered
And we may walk that trail
Only in our dreams
But those words are yet to fade
they were the voice of our soul
Etched into the lap of nature
And as I run my fingers along its rugged edges
I reminisce about you
And hope that wherever you are
You are thinking about me too

"Turn around!"
She wishes the rain would cut her skin to ribbons
Drawing the heel of her hand across her eyes
Gravel cuts into the soles of her bare feet
Puddles splashing under his retreating footsteps
He doesn't even pause
"Turn around!"
Repeating her plead feels like desperation
It almost is
Almost
She wills her voice not to break
"Look at me when you say it!"
He walks on
Never wavering
Icy droplets cut her until the shiver settles in her bones
Then she speaks his name
The name of her almost anonymous lover
Almost
And he stops
The rain turning his silhouette gray and defeated
Her breath catches in her throat
In the space between heartbeats she can see him touch his lips
As if remembering their last kiss
She swears he almost trembles
Almost
And she shuts her eyes
Letting him paint the backs of her eyelids one last time
"I'm so afraid."
She whispers to no one and everyone all at once
Afraid of letting him slip away
Afraid of losing her grip
When she opens her eyes  
He's gone
But then again
He was never really there

Not a day goes by that I don’t think
about the way your hands felt
intertwined with mine, or the way
your hair gently danced on your
shoulders, or how your dimples
would form into canyons when I
made you laugh, or how your
freckles were their own tiny
constellations in the night sky,
or how the sound of your voice
could calm the harshest storms,
or when I kissed you it felt like I was
myself and I was comfortable
with you, with us... and I can’t
shake the feeling that maybe
somewhere I went wrong... I was
silly to hide you from the world
when you deserved to be every
billboard in the world. I was young,
and you were the first girl I ever
kissed, and that scared me.

t.h.

Drip drop
Two words. They make me think of rainfall on a dark night. Cozy. Snug. Back when lines were blurred and I was a child who didn’t have to pretend I was all grown up. But ‘drip drop’ isn’t real and that’s not the pattering sound rain makes as it hits the ground, no, that’s too surreal. It will never be a slow comfort to the ears that sends soaring sears of pleasant shivers up my spine to the tip of my head. A Moment. Mine. It will never be a memory of my dad, my mum, once, tucking me in bed while it rains outside and they lean over, with a gleam in their eye, and whisper to me before sleep. ‘Drip drop’ they said. But now I hear ‘freak’.